Hope
by Mrs. Blink and Miss Itt
Summary: A oneshot Hurt/Comfort Romance story between Sai and an OC that follows one of the ups and downs of their rocky little relationship. It's not a fairy-tale, and it's not easy, but it's something they both want. Now, they just need to make it work.


Hope (Sai x OC oneshot)

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own OC/s; the other characters and the world they live in belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

There she was; sitting with her knees against her chest and gazing out over Konoha as it shone with the last of the day's golden rays, she just let the breeze on top of Hokage Mountain play with her short hair like he knew she loved to.

Inori.

Sai gave a sigh of relief once he finally spotted her. Shoulders that were full of tension seemed to deflate with that sigh, and he unhurriedly made his way to where she sat. It wasn't the first time she'd done this, just disappeared in a state of sheer nervousness and bewilderment. It wouldn't be the last, either. Luckily for him, Inori was easy to predict when she was in one of her moods.

Gently, he sat down next to her and took her hand in his. Startled out of her frantic musings, her one visible eye shot up to meet his own. He could see all of her struggles and fears swirling around in that deep caramel orb, as well as the tightness in her lips, as Inori gazed at him with her usual intensity. The sight twisted at his heart and made it feel hollow. It was just another reminder.

She didn't kiss him, she didn't embrace him, she didn't even tighten her grip on his hand. She just gazed at him with that same, hollow look of suspicion but terrible longing.

Sai wanted to laugh, but he felt no mirth whatsoever. Power. People were so obsessed with power. Whether it was from physical strength, from ninjutsu, or even from politics. Naturally, genjutsu was no exception. What Sai wanted to ask these people, who all but frothed at the bit whenever the word 'power' was mentioned, was fairly straight forward. Well, he thought so, at least.

Was it ever really worth it?

He knew his answer. And really, what else could he say when the one person he'd ever come to care for romantically, wasn't even sure if the world around her was the real one? He'd never really had much of an interest in genjutsu, and as such, there were plenty who were far more proficient at it than he was. It wasn't an uncommon mind set, or so he'd observed. But now, after seeing the effects of it on Inori's mind…

Taking a deep breath and exhaling it, he tried to disperse his tension and steer his mind towards other topics. Sai turned to Inori with a soft smile. "You had me worried when you ran off like that."

Her eyebrows knitted together, adding more worried creases to her unsure and bandage-covered face, but stayed silent, as if contemplating something important. It was nothing out of the ordinary. Well, as ordinary as Inori got, anyway. Again, his heart gave a painful wrench. Sakura had said it'd be… _difficult_ to try and form the sort of attachment he wanted with Inori. That she'd need _a_ _lot_ of patience, and that it wouldn't be in any way, shape, or form easy. But at the time, he'd been too overwhelmed with these new feelings for the girl to think straight. Now, he was beginning to see the merit in what Sakura had said. It was difficult, and _painful_, to hold feelings for someone who couldn't even be entirely sure that you really existed. He knew she wanted to be close to him as well, he could read it even now in her body language.

But if she couldn't be sure that she wouldn't blink and he'd disappear, like some twisted dream, then how could they ever work? If she couldn't believe that he existed, then how could she possibly believe in him? Slowly, and with a heavy heart, he started to retract his hand. The answer seemed simple, but bleak. It couldn't, and she couldn't.

His progress was halted when her grip tightened on his hand.

He froze in surprise and met her eye. It still held uncertainty, it always did, but right now it was muted, almost as if it'd been beaten down into a temporary submission. In its place, there was a different sort of nervousness, and anticipation, as well as something else.

"I'm sorry." A ghost of a sheepish smile pulled at the corner of her mouth. "I didn't want to make you worry." Sai felt himself stunned for a second time as he heard the double meaning in her apology.

He blinked as the so-called 'butterflies' started up again in his chest cavity. As he hesitated, Inori inhaled deeply, as if to booster her resolve. Before Sai knew what she was doing, her arms were wrapped around his torso and her head was buried between his shoulder and his neck.

Time stood still for Sai as Inori gently and hesitantly clung to him. Oblivious as he was to the fact, as he was caught up in his shock, it stood still for Inori as well. With every second that passed without any reaction from him, the more tense she became, and the more her spontaneous flicker of hope was chipped away at.

Had she been wrong? Was Sai just a figment of her well meaning but out of control imagination after all? She began to shake. Had her subconscious trapped her in a genjutsu of its own creating? It wasn't impossible; she had cast a genjutsu over herself once or twice before, both intentionally and unintentionally, and each resulting in varying ways.

Tears came to the corner of her unbandaged right eye. No. Please. It couldn't be. Sai had to be real. Please. He had told her to trust him, that he was really real, and that… He… He really liked her. And Inori had realised that she felt something for him as well. Her trembling escalated. He _felt_ real, and blissfully warm, but that was the way genjutsu worked. It tricks you into experiencing something that is nothing but someone else's conscious design. But please, _please_, don't let him be-

Warm, strong arms bound and pulled her tighter against Sai's chest, hands bracing firmly against her back and bringing her back to where he was. Burying her head deeper into the crook of his neck and tightening her grip on Sai, her shaking slowly abated, and a giddy sense of euphoria and comfort enveloped her.

"It's okay." Sai rested his cheek against the side of her head and almost imperceptibly nuzzled into her soft, ruffled, messily cut hair. The double meaning was not lost on Inori, either, and she took in a breath and relaxed even further into him. She both heard and felt him hum in contentment. "It feels nice." Inori nodded her agreement into his chest and gave her own hum of appreciation.

They stayed like that as the sun set, simply holding one another. They had changed positions, and now they both sat facing out over Konoha, Inori's arms encircling Sai's waist from the side, and her head resting in the crook of his neck, whilst his arms wrapped around her and held her into him. Both sat in contentment and quiet, simply relishing in the feel of human contact, and the emotional closeness that it brought.

A gentle gust toyed with their hair, and Sai felt Inori hum in delight. Cocking his head slightly, he toyed with the question for a while in his head before asking it. "Inori?" Another small hum of recognition was heard. "Why do you like the wind so much?"

There was a pause as Inori contemplated her answer. "I'm not sure." She chewed her lip before she continued. "I guess… It's a way of reassuring myself that I'm here; _really_ here. Often, the look or sound of what's going on around me just isn't enough… Those are so easily fabricated, and not only by my genjutsu." As she paused yet again to get her thoughts together, Sai nodded in concurrence. "I don't know, but if I can feel something, it just seems so much easier to believe in. I mean, a knife's never going to feel like a raindrop, right? Or, so I like to believe."

Sai gave her a gentle squeeze of acknowledgment, and she closed her eyes as she nestled deeper into his arms. A smile tugged at his lips. He'd suspected that she was a very tactile person from the get-go. She'd always fiddle with something or brush her fingertips over a surface whenever she'd been confused or nervous.

He closed his own eyes and rubbed his cheek against her head before just resting it there, and she gave an appreciative sigh that sent his heart fluttering. But not as much as the hope that had begun to blossom once again between the two. She was trying, really trying, no matter what her doubts may be screaming at her. Giving her another affectionate squeeze, he felt her nuzzle deeper into his neck, making him shiver at the intense warmth and fondness that she evoked in him.

They didn't say or do anything after that. They didn't feel that they needed to. They just watched the sky darken and the stars start to come out, wrapped in their own cozy little world. Though this was all new to him, too, he felt a confidence that they could both make it work.


End file.
